Biotechnology and Life Sciences

Life Sciences Patent Specialists

Cantab IP is a Singapore-based patent firm with a focus on biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and related sectors within the life sciences and healthcare industries.

Biotech Patent Attorney Based in Singapore

Our principal attorney, Dr Khoo Chong-Yee, brings two decades of experience as a biotech patent attorney, having worked in the United Kingdom, Europe, and Singapore. He is one of the few qualified biotech patent attorneys in Singapore and Southeast Asia.

Dr Khoo has significant expertise in patent drafting, prosecution, and defence across a wide range of biotech, pharmaceutical, life sciences, and related fields. His clients include universities, research institutions, startups, SMEs, and large industrial clients based in Asia, Europe, and the United States.

Dr Khoo holds a Ph.D. from Cambridge University in DNA replication and the cell cycle and has published research in Nature and Current Biology. Prior to founding Cantab IP, he was a partner in the biotechnology and life sciences group at one of the leading patent and trade mark firms in the UK. He also has industry experience from his time working in-house in the IP department of a major Danish diagnostics manufacturer.

Dr Khoo has represented a range of prominent organisations in the fields of food sciences, vaccines, pharmaceuticals, and numerous prestigious universities and research institutes globally. He enjoys engaging with inventors on scientific matters and has had the privilege of working alongside several Nobel Prize winners.

Broad Range of Technical Expertise

While Cantab IP is equipped to handle a wide variety of subject matters in the life sciences, we possess particular expertise in the following areas:

• Diagnostics and personalised medicine
• Drug screening
• Oncology and cancer biology (e.g., breast cancer, liver cancer)
• Tumour therapy and CAR T-cell therapy
• Drug delivery
• Microarray technologies
• Genes, proteins, nucleic acids and polypeptide sequences
• Cell cycle, zinc fingers, GPCRs
• Gene editing and CRISPR
• Cell lines and cell culture
• Embryonic stem cells (ES cells)
• Developmental biology
• Antibody technology
• Vaccines
• Tropical diseases (e.g., dengue, chikungunya)
• Bioinformatics
• Pharmaceuticals, including combination therapies
• Food technology
• Medical equipment
• Medical technology (medtech)
• Personalised medicine
• Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)

Our clients range from local and international funding agencies, research institutes, academia, SMEs, biotech startups and large pharmaceutical companies in Singapore and abroad.

Patent Term Extensions

Under Singapore patent law, extensions of term for patent protection are available when delays in obtaining marketing approval for pharmaceutical products occur. These extensions are akin to Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs) available in Europe.

For further details, please refer to our article on patent term extensions in Singapore.

Other Services

Cantab IP also provides expert advice on the intellectual property aspects of the regulatory approval process under the Singapore Medicines Act. In addition, we offer guidance on Plant Variety Rights and Supplementary Protection Certificates.